Shots Fired! David Hayter Has A Dig At Ground Zeroes Length

Any gamer worth his salt knows who David Hayter is. Since 1998, Hayter has been the iconic voice of Solid Snake who became a gaming icon after the release of Metal Gear Solid on the PlayStation. The game is arguably considered to be the best game on the PlayStation and since then Hayter has appeared in every Metal Gear Solid game. When we heard about Ground Zeroes/The Phantom Pain, it never entered our minds that Hayter wouldn’t be asked to reprise his iconic role…

It came as a massive blow to Metal Gear Solid fans when it was announced that David Hayter would not be voicing Big Boss and that the role had instead gone to Kiefer Sutherland. Sutherland is of course a great actor and personally I think he’ll do a fine job but it just seems so strange that Hideo Kojima didn’t want Hayter to reprise his role. Neither Kojima nor Hayter have really disclosed the exact reasons Hayter was not asked to return but there have been rumours that the two had fallen out after Hayter revealed he didn’t personally agree with the ending to Metal Gear Solid 4. That all seemed like speculation but a recent Tweet by Hayter implies that he and Kojima may not be on the best of terms. It was recently revealed that Ground Zeroes, the “prologue” to The Phantom Pain, was less than an hour long. This news sparked a lot of media buzz and criticism with some people becoming concerned that we would be paying big bucks for what is essentially a demo. A few days after the news broke, David Hayter composed a Tweet which reads: “I’ve never had to justify my game length.” This could just be a tongue in cheek Tweet that Hayter didn’t intend to be a shot but it’s not hard to see why some people are considering it to be a criticism of Ground Zeroes.

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It should be kept in mind that Kojima loves to mess with fans when it comes to the build up of a new Metal Gear Solid game and there are still rumours that Hayter may actually be in the game, although as the release date looms, this seems more and more unlikely. I wish Kiefer Sutherland all the best with his role as Big Boss but I can’t deny I would love for Hayter to return one day.